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The soldiers mercilessly shot at the girls. It wasn’t like their hearts didn’t hurt over shooting young women, but they believed the war would come to a quick end if those three were killed.
However, what happened next went beyond anything they could have expected. The beams had looked like they were piercing the girls’ bodies. However...
“What?!” the captain exclaimed.
The beams had instead shot through metal lumps: three familiar unmanned craft. They were relatively small types that both the Imperial Army and Liberation Army used, typically for infantry support. The beams shot through the unmanned craft and destroyed them, and the girls were nowhere to be seen. It was like they’d never been there at all.
“What is going on?!” The captain was astonished, but their misfortune had only just begun.
An explosion happened a short distance behind them. It wasn’t all that big, but it caused the cliff to collapse and block the way.
“Dammit! They got us!” a soldier cried.
They now realized that they had fallen for a trap and let the girls escape. The girls must have fled a long time ago.
After making sure that the ravine had been blocked off, the haniwas returned to Kiriha as planned. They were slightly behind the collapsed cliff face, having entered a byroad and hidden in a small, open space. They’d been there the entire time, watching the fight.
“Ane-go, mission complete, ho!” Karama said.
“Did you see what we did, ho!” Korama said.
Kiriha nodded. “Indeed. Well done.”
“All right, ho!” Karama cheered.
“We were praised, ho!” Korama added.
Kiriha looked satisfied but also relieved. The haniwas might be rather stealthy, but the first attack had been risky. Fortunately, the haniwas had returned safely, so she smiled at them.
“Well done, Kiriha-sama,” said Ruth.
“They fell for it, hook, line, and sinker,” Clan agreed.
“It’s an opening in the mind that any human would have,” Kiriha explained. “They’ve been following us without ever seeing us, so when they caught a glimpse, they were distracted and failed to confirm the facts. If their commander had been calm and confirmed everything, we wouldn’t have been able to escape.”
It had all been part of Kiriha’s trap. The three unmanned craft had been covered with holograms of the girls and used as decoys. If the enemy had used sensors to examine them, they would have found that they were holograms and the trap would have failed. But the enemy had been negligent. Like Kiriha had said, they’d gotten ahead of themselves and hadn’t confirmed the facts. They’d followed the unmanned craft, unaware that they were being led on a different path than the one the girls had taken, and then their way back had been blocked. Two beasts had collapsed, and the others were seriously injured. Even if the soldiers got past the rubble and rejoined them, it would be impossible to chase the girls at the same speed they had before. Moreover, moving the rubble would take a lot of time. So it would make sense to assume that the squad would no longer be able to pursue their targets.
“But a commander calm enough to do that wouldn’t have brought the five beasts into the ravine in the first place,” Clan concluded, taken aback not by the enemy commander but Kiriha’s ability to fully predict the enemy’s actions.
“It would seem Her Highness has seen through me,” Kiriha said with a shrug.
“Right. After seeing them bring in all five beasts, you became convinced that the enemy commander was in a rush, Kiriha-sama.” Ruth nodded. “He must have reasoned that there was no need for pursuit anymore and brought them along for more firepower.”
She had previously been perplexed. To her, it had seemed like Kiriha’s plan had several holes in it. But if the commander was in a rush, her plan made sense. As expected, he had failed to see through Kiriha’s plan and aggressively attacked. Normally, he would have left a beast or two outside of the ravine. But in his hurry he had failed to do so and ended up losing a valuable means of pursuit.
“Besides, if their commander was like that, we would have been cornered sooner,” Kiriha said.
Another factor had been the enemy’s ability to pursue. If the commander had been more careful and capable, they would have followed the girls more skilfully. Since they hadn’t, Kiriha could easily guess their skill level. She had only been convinced once they’d entered the ravine but had more or less surmised it ahead of time.
“I wouldn’t rate them that poorly, though,” she continued. “They’re just true to their work.”
“And you are the one who targeted that behavior. Good grief...” Clan sighed.
Kiriha’s abilities were already beyond traps and ruses. She was reading the minds of her opponents. Clan almost felt sorry for the Liberation Army, who had to go up against her.
“Well, thanks to Kiriha-sama, we were able to escape,” said Ruth.
The closest squad had been stalled. There were others behind them, but they had bought themselves enough time to escape, so they were safe for now.
“They are going to come after you for this, Kii,” Clan warned her.
“I think that goes for you too.”
“We wouldn’t have been able to do anything if you hadn’t hacked those unmanned craft, Clan-sama,” Ruth agreed.
“What about you, Pardomshiha? What was with those realistically moving holograms?” Clan said.
Their escape had been a display of their powers. Kiriha had come up with the plan, Clan had controlled the unmanned craft, and Ruth’s holograms had been essential. It was because of those capabilities that Maxfern refused to let them go. He would hound them until they regrouped with Koutarou and the others.
“Alert message,” the AI announced alongside an alarm. “Large numbers of space distortions detected around the area.”
It was reporting that the enemy was appearing in a wide area around them.
“Kii, they’re making a drastic move!” Clan shouted.
The large number of spatial distortions meant that the enemy was sending forces through transfer gates without any proper preparations. It took an hour to fully set up a transfer gate, so the enemy was using them while being aware of the losses they would take.
“If only...” Kiriha said. “This is probably in preparation for their real attack.”
“This is an emergency, ho!” Karama said. “We’re detecting a large magical reaction, ho!”
“Detecting a large mass! It’s either a mobile weapon or an extra large magical beast, ho!” Korama added.
As Kiriha had expected, their real goal came last. Based on its size, it was either a mobile weapon covered in powerful magic or a massive magical beast.
“They wanted to hide this thing’s spatial distortion reaction,” Kiriha noted.
“So they used a large number of spatial distortions so that it would be impossible to tell where it appeared?!” Ruth exclaimed.